My husband and I have just returned from an eight day trip to Istanbul, Turkey, where we attempted to do some genealogical research.
I would like to share our experiences for those of you who might be considering such a trip.

THE BACKGROUND:

My husband's ALGAZE great grandparents emigrated to the U.S. in 1913 at the ages of 57 and 50. Their New York death certificates gave us the names of their four parents. Based on their ages, our best guess was that their parents would have died around 1890 - 1910. Since we figured that death information would be easier to locate than any other vital statistics, our search was focused on trying to get death information about these four individuals.

THE SETUP:

My husband's BEHAR family still lives in Istanbul. They promised to get us connected to people, places, and records.

THE FIRST STOP

We had been told that the best source for death information in Istanbul was Neve Shalom Synagogue.

NEVE SHALOM SYNAGOGUE:
No. 61 Buyuk Hendek Cadessi (Street), Galata, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: 0212 293-7566
Near the Galata Kulesi (Tower).
Within walking distance from Tunel Square.
The office is to the left of the synagogue.

Our BEHAR relatives set up an appointment with Mrs. Soli at Neve Shalom who, we had been told, had access to the
records. We showed up on the appointed day to find that a funeral service was just finishing up at the Synagogue.
There was a lot of security. (You may remember that there had been a terrible terrorist attack at Neve Shalom recently.)
We asked for Mrs. Soli and were directed to meet a gentlemen whom we assumed to be the director of the Synagogue. We explained our situation, only to be told that Neve Shalom only has records since 1949 when the Synagogue was founded. HOWEVER, we were told that additional records could be found at the office of the Chief Rabbinate. We were
directed to the Chief Rabbinate's office which was a short uphill walk.

When we got there we had to pass heavy security and leave our Passports at the front desk. We were directed to an English speaking employee who was VERY HELPFUL. She offered us tea and asked how she could help. Once we explained our situation, we were informed that the Chief Rabbinate's office only had records back fifty years. (Apparently there had been some kind of a fire and all the older records were lost.) Strike Two.

HOWEVER, this employee tried to help and looked in her records to find an ALGAZE family who was a member of the community. She gave us their telephone number.

After conversation with the family, we got information about a local cemetery that might have some information. This is the cemetery where THEIR family members are buried. They gave us the location and directions and we made plans to go there to find additional information.

ARNAVOTKOY-ULUS JEWISH CEMETERY
ARNAVUTKOY-ULUS MEZARLIK MUSEVI
In the Arnavutkoy section of the city. One hundred meters along the road to Ulus.
Across the street from the back entrance of the very modern Akmerkez Shopping Center. On the OTHER side of the street. Look for the flower stand in front of the cemetery.

When we arrived at the cemetery, they were just finishing up with a funeral service. It turned out to be a stroke of luck, as we found several mourners who spoke English and could help us with what we were looking for.

Once you enter this cemetery, there is a door to the right which is the residence of the caretaker and his family. He ONLY speaks Turkish. Behind the door to the left is the chapel where they conduct funeral services. In a cabinet in the back of the chapel is the record book where they keep the records for ALL the burials in this cemetery.

Unfortunately, this cemetery has only been in existence since 1923 and so that is when the records start. At this point, we
would take whatever we could find. The record book is organized alphabetically. So that under "A" we found all of the burials of individuals whose surname started with "A" from 1923 through 2000. Under "B" would be individuals whose surname started with "B", etc. Also listed were the dates of death, the dates of burial, and the location of the plot. We found three ALGAZEs. Their dates of death were 1934, 1948 and 1953. With the information we found, the caretaker tried to help us to find the graves. We only found one of the three, but the caretaker found an additional ALGAZE grave that wasn't in the book. We made sure to tip the caretaker for his time and effort.

At this point, we only had one day left and we inquired about what other cemetery in Istanbul might have information for us. We were directed to the Synagogue in Orta Koy. They have their own cemetery.

The morning we arrived at the Synagogue there were many people milling about as they were preparing for an afternoon funeral service. Here again, we had to pass through security and leave our passports at the front desk. No one spoke English, but between our Los Angeles street Spanish and high school French we were able to let them know what we were looking for. They showed us to the office of the Synagogue director who gave us their record book of all the deaths of members of the congregation from 1939 through 1996. These were listed chronologically, by date. We found one Algaze and two Bitchatchos. They had a copy machine and let us make photo copies. We thanked them profusely and left a generous tip for the Synagogue. As it was starting to rain, we did not bother to ask them for directions to the cemetery.

CONCLUSIONS:

We were unable to find any records for any time before 1923. It should also be noted that 1923 was the date of the majority of modernization ordinances enacted by Ataturk, one of which was the conversion from Arabic writing to modern Latin letters. We had been told by several people that even if we had found any official documents from before 1923, they would have been written in Arabic. In fact, we had brought along an official marriage certificate for a family member from the year 1888 that was written in Arabic. We showed it to a number of people--no one had any idea how to
read it.

Alternately, if you could find records from BEFORE 1923, if they were not written in Arabic, they would most probably be written in Ladino. Ladino is a Spanish based language, and often written using Hebrew letters. So you would have to know how to read Hebrew AND understand Ladino in order to know what you were reading.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Jewish cemeteries in Istanbul are named for the sections of town where they are located. i.e., the Arnavutkoy Jewish Cemetery is in the Arnavutkoy section of town. The Orta Koy Jewish Cemetery is located in the Orta Koy section of town. Other cemeteries we learned about, but did not visit are:

HASKOY CEMETERY
In the section of Haskoy (in the Golden Horn region on the European side.) This is the cemetery written about extensively
by Ms. Minna Rosen in her various books. We had been told that it is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city but we do not know what kind of records they have. The city fathers tore up the entire middle of the cemetery some years back in order to create a road that runs right through the cemetery. We have been told that many bodies were moved to other parts of the cemetery. We do not know if they kept records of this change.

KUZGUNCEK CEMETERY

In the section of Kuzguncek (on the Asian side) We do not know anything about this cemetery

KADIKOY CEMETERY

In the section of KADIKOY (on the Asian side)

SISLI (JEWISH ITALIAN) CEMETERY

The Sisli (Italian-Jewish Museum) is in Sisli (a section of European Istanbul). It is on all the tourist maps and is located near the minibus terminal of Sisli. The cemetery is across from the building # 283 Abidin Hurriyet Cadessi.

[Sol Ortasse, of Santa Monica, has told me that he found records from the early 1900s at the Italian Jewish Community Center. He does not know the address of this Community Center, although he does remember it being within walking distance of the Neve Shalom Synagogue. It could be either of the addresses below, both of which are in the Galata section of Istanbul.]

There is a SECOND cemetery in the Arnavutkoy-Ulus section of the city. In the past, it was for Ashkenazi community members, but Sephardics have been using it more recently, as the Sephardic cemeteries are being filled up. It is along the same road as the Arnavutkoy Sefardic cemetery (ca. 500m. between the two cemeteries), on the road towards Ulus.

The Ashkenazi Cemetery Arnavutkoy-Ulus was opened in 1916 and their records go back to that year. Before 1916, Ashkenazi Jews were buried in Sephardic cemeteries, like Haskoy.

The ASHKENAZI COMMUNITY OFFICE archive includes birth, marriage and death records. The first records (starting in 1847) were primarily marriage records. The number of records increased every year. All the records are written with Latin letters. They start in the German language, and somewhere in the 1930s or 1940s the language becomes Turkish.
[Source: Sami Feldman, Istanbul]

THE JEWISH ASHKENAZI COMMUNITY OF TURKEY

Banker sokak No.10
Karakoy - Istanbul, Turkey

I hope this helps. If anyone has any additional information to add about their own research in Istanbul, I am sure that it would be most appreciated.

POSTSCRIPT:

I belive that my experience simply reiterates what others have found in Istanbul and posted on this forum at various times:
that each community keeps its own records, that the records are kept in old books, are handwritten, and only date back to the early 1900's. Also, the people who are the "keepers of the books" have no time or interest to do research for us
genealogists and it would be a waste of time to write or call them for information.

I did find ONE exception. The employee at the office of the Chief Rabbinate told me of a "Roots Committee," that does
genealogical research using their records. HOWEVER, upon further questioning, it turns out that this "roots committe"
consists of a single elderly man who comes to the office once a week for a couple of hours and does research. She suggested that if one wanted to contact him, you could send a letter to the "roots committee" care of the Chief Rabbinate, and expect to wait up to a year for a reply.

I am sorry that I do not have better news. But it is what it is. As posted in this forum, it would be WONDERFUL if someone could visit the individual Synagogues and Cemeteries and microfilm the records. Any volunteers?

Barbara Algaze
Los Angeles, California

Many thanks to Francis Amar for those additional details to my original posting on "Research in Istanbul". In the meantime, I have also received additional details from two members of our forum: [Posted with their permission]